Interviews

StarCraft II

GameSpy gets a last-minute holiday present in the form of a new Q&A with StarCraft II lead designer Dustin Browder.

As we head into the long holiday break and barrel in on the new year, GameSpy found one extra gift in its stocking -- an opportunity to get in a quick Q&A with StarCraft II lead designer Dustin Browder. Without a specific topic to discuss, though, we decided that perhaps this time we might like to be a bit more free-floating in our questions, addressing the little things we haven't yet gotten to in the previous hoopla surrounding the reveals of the big three races and the single- player trilogy. With that in mind we used our brief time with Browder to talk about a little bit of everything ranging from single-player to mirror matches to the powerful new map editor.

GameSpy: Can you describe in a bit more detail the structure of the single player campaign? If there are 26-30 missions is that in a linear chain and how does your structure enhance replayability?

Dustin Browder: Actually our campaigns will be structured in such a way that players can choose the path they take -- it's not a linear path. Our goal with StarCraft II's campaign is to give players the ability to make meaningful choices in the missions they take and the technologies they unlock, so as to customize their single-player experience. The choices you make can impact how different subplots unfold, or how soon you unlock certain units and technologies.

There will still be a single, overarching story we're trying to tell, so it's not as if there will be alternate endings to the primary plot line. But in certain subplots, players could affect the fate of specific characters or even worlds depending on the choices they make, while the ability to choose your technology upgrades lets you customize your army for your own playing style.

We can even introduce units and technology in the campaign that are unique to the single-player game and won't appear in multiplayer games. As an example, one technology you can choose would be to upgrade your bunkers to fit six infantry instead of four. If you're the type of player that likes to turtle-in, then that's probably an attractive upgrade for you. Another player who's more aggressive would probably choose to spend credits on a different unit or technology upgrade. By introducing flexibility in mission choices, and an array of exciting, single-player –only technologies, we not only enhance replayability, but give the campaign a much different flavor than the multiplayer aspect.

GameSpy: One of the interesting new elements we noted at Blizzcon is that the new strategic design for each of the sides seems to have been tweaked to make up for a deficiency in the original game. The Zerg, for example, are now much stronger on defense and the Protoss have learned how to move. Was this deliberate and how do you continue to balance out the sides when you've removed their biggest weaknesses?

Browder: : I wouldn't say that those aims were foremost on our minds. If anything, one of the best aspects of StarCraft was that each side played so differently and yet remained pretty balanced. The last thing we're trying to do is homogenize the races. In fact, one of our primary goals as we design each faction and the units in each faction is to make the three sides feel even more unique, while retaining balance. We want the Terran to feel more edgy and industrial, the Protoss to feel even more ethereal and high-tech and the Zerg to feel even more… Zergy.

Just to bring up one example from the BlizzCon build that the public and press saw recently, we introduced a movement speed bonus for Zerg ground units when they're walking on creep. Since Overlords have a creep-spreading ability this has led to a number of games where you see Zerg players covering large swaths of the map in slimy creep, which is what you'd imagine a relentless insectoid race like the Zerg would do.